In the ninth episode of the second season of Person of Interest, the team helps a desperate man with his family issue, while Fusco gets in WAY too deep. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Person of Interest.
It is (unsurprisingly) hard to find fiction in the United States that sympathizes with immigrants who aren’t white. And that distinction is important: American media loves a good immigrant story, but only if that person is an “acceptable” type of immigrant. How could you possible measure that sort of thing? It seems absurd in the face of it, as it is something that is impossible to quantify. And yet, my government does it all the time. The news media corporations do it every day. Citizens do it, too. We measure the worth of a person based on what they can give us. What labor can we get from them? What specialized skills? How can we exploit them so that we can pay these people as little as possible in order to raise profit margins for the rich and privileged? How can we keep them desperate so that they’re caught in cycles of debt?
Thus, you get a lot of bootstraps myths spread through the popular culture, all telling you that if you do the right things in the most respectable manner, you’ll be able to capture the American Dream. What fascinates me about “C.O.D.” is that it never bothers to go through any of these motions. Instead, this is a story about how the American Dream failed Fermin Ordoñez. He more or less states it when talking to Reese: he was promised fame and money if he defected from Cuba and played in the Major Leagues. But what happens when he cannot materially contribute in the way that is expected of him? He’s dropped into the chaos of American life, without his wife and son, and he’s left with absolutely no way to get home or bring his family over to New York. What’s so heartbreaking about this episode is that he still tries. He spends years driving a cab all over New York City, and he saves up money the entire time, all so he can bring his family over. It is the boostrap theory writ large, and it still doesn’t work. The man who brought Fermin over doubles his price at the last minute, then makes a bullshit excuse about market values and worth, and in that moment, even he sees immigration as a means to gather wealth. They’re not people anymore; they’re a commodity.
I don’t expect these details… pretty much ever? And I certainly didn’t expect an hour of this show to be devoted to validating Fermin’s struggle and then helping him reunite with his family. His entire story is framed as one deserving of sympathy and care. At no point do Reese or Finch criticize him for how he got to the US or for making the decision to leave his wife and son behind. They understand why he’s done this, and they actively work towards protecting his life. And then, CARTER DOES THE BEST THING. Technically, what they do for Fermin is illegal, and this show rewards Fermin with his family. LIKE… IT’S SO BEAUTIFUL. It’s so pure. And it shows that there’s a moral core to Person of Interest that has nothing to do with whether something is legal or legal, but whether it’s right.
And smack in the middle of this is Fusco, who is still struggling with making the right choice. His decision to distance himself from Reese, Finch, and Carter is not working out well for him, but he tries to resist Simmons and HR. That attempt – which is his refusal to turn over the last surviving mob boss to Elias – lasts a whole sixty seconds because SIMMONS IS THE PERPETUAL WORST. Y’all, can he please be shot or blown up? He is such an unabashed villain, and the way he constantly tries to ruin Fusco as a bargaining tool is AWFUL. At the same time: Fusco needs to tell Reese and Finch what’s happening. They could help him, and it’s frustrating to see him try to duck out of being in HR without any real plan. He’s never going to be able to just leave, you know?
Ugh, this was a great episode. I CAN’T WAIT FOR MORE.
The video for “C.O.D.” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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